Driving Safety

Distracted Driving Awareness

Distracted driving is anything that takes your hands off the wheel, your eyes off the road or mind off driving. It is extremely risky behavior that puts everyone on the road in danger. There are different kinds of driver distractions:

Categories of Driver Distraction

Visual

Taking your eyes off the road

Manual

Taking your hands off the wheel

Cognitive

Thinking about anything other than driving

Texting requires all three types of distraction, making it one of the most dangerous of distracted driving behaviors. However, this is not the only cause of distracted driving. Other common distractions include: tending to kids or passengers in the back seat, eating, watching an event outside of the vehicle, interacting with passengers, unsecured pets, putting on makeup or grooming, adjusting radio or climate controls, checking your GPS app or system and even daydreaming.

To successfully avoid a crash, a driver must perceive a hazard, react and give the vehicle time to stop. Driver perception distance, or the distance a vehicle travels from the time a driver sees a hazard until the brain recognizes it, and reaction distance, the distance a car will continue to travel after seeing a hazard until the driver physically hits the brakes, dramatically affects a vehicle’s stopping distance. Even a focused driver going 50 mph will travel nearly the length of a football field before coming to a complete stop.

When a driver is not focused on the road, it limits their ability to come to a stop and avoid a crash.

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and Florida Highway Patrol remind all drivers to keep your eyes on the road and Focus on Driving to ensure everyone can Arrive Alive!

Resources

Social Media Kit Download the Social Media Posts PDF and click on the thumbnails below to make posting on social media quick and easy! Make sure to use hashtag #FocusOnDrivingFL too.#FocusonDrivingFL Social Media Posts